What Is An IME?

I always wonder about the people who get sent to IME’s and who don’t have a lawyer. An IME is what the insurance company calls an "Independent Medical Examination". They are rarely independent (because they are regularly hired to work for insurance companies), do involve medical doctors, but they aren’t much of an examination (maybe 20 minutes of questions and a quick look over). My clients usually agree that they are adverse examinations that are done only to cut your benefits off.

There are things to be aware of when going to Evalumed, Aspen Medical, MEI, or a local spot that is hosting the doctors who came up from the cities.

– These doctors get hired all the time to do these examinations. Thus, it isn’t in their financial interest to tell their employer that the insurance company should keep paying.

– That many of their reports look a lot alike when you get a group of them together. Makes you wonder if they really have to see the person at all to make their opinions.

– You cannot be physically injured or improperly (sexually or otherwise) touched by these examiners

– There isn’t a doctor-patient relationship, so they don’t owe you anything as far as care goes, in the way that a real doctor would.

– That many of these doctors come into the examination with longstanding views concerning your injuries. We’ve had a number of them admit that they don’t believe that there is ever a permanent injury with certain types of cases. That the care should always only be 2-6 weeks at most. That certain types of injuries never can come from a car accident.

• Why do you think they are doing the exam?
• What do you think their opinion is in each case?
• Do you think what you say in the examination matters at all?

I feel bad for the clients that come back and say how nice the doctor was. Then a couple of weeks later see that the "nice doctor" left out all of the things he said and misconstrued or lied about what the person said and did.

If you are facing one of these exams, make sure that you have talked to a lawyer who can discuss your rights. Consider keeping track of how long you were there and what happened. Most of all, protect yourself by watching what you say and in how the examination goes.

Don’t let an adverse medical phony take advantage of you.